‘Concreteberg’ dumpers don’t care about city they call their home

03 May, 2019

• EARLY modern historians used to say the end of the Roman Empire was reached through moral depravity. Like a duck being fattened up for foie gras formalities, the former gleaming empire became so depraved and broken there was no way for it to go other than to self-destruct.

Of course, this is now a theory long rejected by classical historians of any worth but it’s an image worth remem­bering. Decadence breeds death or images of death. We should not head this way as individuals and nor should London.

Reading your article about the giant “concreteberg” found in the sewers near my home made me feel as if it’s once again the end of London/Empire/Rome, (Concrete blockage in sewer, April 19).

I went to gaze at the fatberg at the Museum of London a couple of years ago when it was on display. After a few months the circular wad of non-compostable tissues, grime, hair and oil extracted from the sewers of Whitechapel by Thames Water started to “sweat” in the little glass box it was displayed in.

This fatberg was only a small chunk of the monstrosity cleared up by workers who endured the stench of the sewers on our behalf.

Of course, they are paid, but we as people on this world are paying a far greater existential cost.

Looking at the fatberg I saw the worst of humanity. We dispose of things into our pipes and bins without a care in the world where it will go or how it will be processed. “Someone else will deal with it. I pay my council tax/water bill” is a common thought process.

I seethe when I see that people have dumped whole sofas and kitchen sets on the streets around my home when they can easily take it to a dump themselves. Why do they do this? Because once it’s in the streets, bins, drains they no longer have to worry about it. Not their problem. But it is their problem, or it is going to be.

To dump concrete the same weight as a blue whale down the drain means someone out there really must not care about London or the people who call the city their home.